happy birthday
My Poem “David Bowie”
Over the course of his life he excited, he electrified, he entertained, and he enriched the world through his gift of creating art and music that instantly struck and stayed in the heart and in the mind of people, like a bolt of lightning from the sky, that made people feel, think, and imagine things that they may never have felt, thought, nor dreamt of before. He had a voice, he had a spirit, he had a charm, a charisma, a presence that could immediately captivate crowds of fans and make them want to sing and dance and lift up their eyes and their hands, because he was able to make people feel as if they could reach out and touch the energy of a star that could inspire them with a purpose that was able to show just how varied and full of colour each of us are - and to this day he and his music makes us consider a variety of possibilities, including whether there really is Life on Mars. He was a man who was not afraid of change, nor of changing his identity and how he was perceived... he was a man who was not afraid of experimentation nor of collaboration with fellow artists who he jived with and felt as if they understood him and also spoke the language of magic, imagination and inspiration that he did. He was a hero, and he still is... he was, he is, and he always will be an icon and a god of music in the eyes of millions of people around the world - and who he was and what he did was all that he ever wanted to be: a man who transcended but who was also connected to the world, a man who left an indelible legacy, a man who gave us all a part of his soul to remember him by, a man who had he not died would today have celebrated turning 75, a man whose face we will forever see, a man whose songs will be listened to by generation after generation on repeat: the man, the legend, the one and the only David Bowie.
Episode #17: “Happy Star Trek Day!”
Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare! ✒📝📖📚
‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.’ - William Shakespeare (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7)
Happy Birthday, Bowie!
It’s been 4 years since we lost David Bowie – on January 10th, 2016 – and today – January 8th, 2020 – would have been David Bowie’s 73rd birthday, and I wanted to write a post to wish one of the most interesting, inspirational, and influential artists the world has ever known a very Happy Birthday – who is hopefully looking down upon us all right now.
To celebrate David Bowie’s birthday today I wanted repost the poem that I wrote for him following his untimely death in 2016, called:
“Always the Starman”
Now it is you
who is the Starman in the sky;
now you know the answer
to the question “is there life of Mars?”;
now you can see just how much
you made us all smile
and how much you made us all dance;
now it will be the stardust of you
that will fall to Earth
and makes our minds sparkle
like the stars at night;
now and forever you will be a hero
for many and not just for one day;
now you can embark
on your own space-oddity;
now and forever through sound and vision
you will speak to us
and you will sing to us all from afar;
now that you have reached
the centre of life’s labyrinth,
and as you now look back
and touch Earth from heaven
with an outstretched hand –
from one poet to another,
this is my tribute to you,
the Starman of Magic in the sky,
who will always be the eternal
and the immortal artist of life David Bowie.
And I also wanted to repost my poem that I wrote last year which was inspired by a brand new piece of street art inspired by David Bowie, called:
“Bowie and Me”
Every day of the week
I head down to Dudley Street
to meet, to greet, and to speak
with the one and the only
David Bowie,
and every time I see him
he talks to me and
he communicates so much to me
without even having to say a word
how lucky we all are to be alive
and walking the streets and the paths
of this world –
and every time I see him
I get this instant flash
of inspiration,
like a bolt of lightning,
that I try to imbue
into the art that I create
which always follows
my divine-like encounter with “Bowie”
who waits tirelessly for me
against a wall of blue
on Dudley Street like a gate-keeper
and a guide to a world of
wonder, imagination, and self-discovery.
“Bowie” by Annatomix – Dudley Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom
And I also wanted to honour David Bowie once again by taking inspiration from his album Aladdin Sane and paying tribute to its iconic artwork by adorning the “Man in Black” who is the central character and who is on the cover of my book Playing God – which includes stories featuring a powerful hero who was also inspired by David Bowie and his timeless legacy of inspiring and motivating people to do unbelievably things… just as I was! Take a look at the Aladdin Sane-inspired cover of my book Playing God below:
And today is also the day when I have decided to start using my Collectors Edition David Bowie themed Moleskine notebook to begin writing who knows what? We shall see:
So, once again, I would like to wish the late great David Bowie a very happy birthday and I would like to thank him for all the inspiration that he has given me over the years!
Rest in peace, David!
1947-2016
-Mark
My Poem “My Hero”
Family has always meant
everything to my Dad
and my Dad will always mean
everything to our family…
my Dad is the heart of our family,
the one that we take
all of our strength, our love,
and our inspiration from,
and he means more to all of us
than could ever be expressed…
my Dad has often had to suffer
the scars of all the battles
that he has found himself drawn into –
both physical and emotional;
however, my Dad has never given up,
my Dad has always put
everyone else’s thoughts, feelings,
and needs before his own,
and my Dad has always been there
for his children when they
needed him the most…
my Dad is such a phenomenal
role-model, a beacon hope,
and his natural blue eyes
and his magnetic smile
is always reason enough
to smile in return and believe
that even the darkest of days
can be turned around with a ray
of sunshine in the form
of someone selfless and special…
the gift that is my Dad
is the one that I have been blessed
to have in my life all my life,
and I would not be anything
without the super-human man
who will forever be an inspiration
to me in so many ways:
the one who first taught me
the meaning of working hard
for whatever it is that you desire,
and the one who daily shows me
that nothing is ever impossible,
because my Dad –
David William George Hastings –
is and always will be my hero.
Mark The Poet 